June 17, 2013

Communication is at the cornerstone of our lives. We email, text, phone, meet, talk, and connect because we have an inherent need to belong. And there are countless studies out there that point to the way we receive communication.

One of the most adopted and accepted appeared in a book by Albert Mehrabian entitled Silent Messages. His research found that the person receiving our messages gives 55% of their attention on our body language and eye contact, 38% to our tone, and just 7% to our words. So how we say it carries more weight than what we say.

What do you mean?

It becomes even trickier with the myriad technology and platforms we use to communicate. This explains a lot of misunderstood emails which we've all received and sent. Sometimes a simple :-) can save a lot of grief.

According to Mehrabian and many others, non-verbal cues carry 93% of the weight of any communication. So if you’re in a leadership role, think about how that can help you strengthen or hinder the culture in your business.